Sandvík (Settlement)

© Styrelsen for Dataforsyning og Infrastruktur

The outlying village of Sandvík was inhabited during the Landnam period. In the Færeyingasaga, it is told that Sigmundur Brestisson, after swimming the long way from Skúvo yto Sandvík together with his friend Thor, who perished on the way, ‘finally managed to drag himself ashore, where he was so exhausted that he could not walk, but crept up on the foreshore and lay down in the seaweed. The place where he lay is called Sigmundargjógv. Here he was beheaded with a hatchet by Thorgrim the Evil, who stole his fine clothes and the gold ring he was wearing.’

The village is surrounded by the two mountains Skálafjall and Borgin at 374 m and 430 m. In the period 1300‑1800, there were no inhabitants in Sandvík or Hvalvík, as the village was called. Around 1815, people from Hvalba settled in the village again. Sandvík got its first church in 1908, when the old church in Tvøroyri was taken down and moved here, and the first school was built in 1890. It was closed down in 2010, and today the children go to school in Hvalba. Sandvík currently has 71 inhabitants. A small port facility was built in the early 1900s. The author Martin Joensen was both born and buried in Sandvík. The vicar and Member of the Danish Parliament Johan Nielsen was also born here.

The Pilot Whale Accident

One of the greatest tragedies in connection with pilot whale hunt in the Faroe Islands happened in Sandvík on 13 February 1915. The weather was bad and during the hunt two boats capsized. The two crews totalled 15 men, and all but one drowned, ten from Hvalba and four from Sandvík.

This pilot whale hunt has since been referred to as Skaðagrindin (the pilot whale hunt accident).

Further reading

Read more about The islands, towns and settlements

  • Jens Hákun Leo

    (b. 1987) MA in International Politics with a minor in history from the University of the Faroe Islands. Primary school teacher in Oyrarbakki, Faroe Islands.